tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61916662018-09-16T21:22:59.689-07:00Another day in paradise-- Steve Macek's BlogMy musings on and criticisms of American culture, media and politics. Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.comBlogger107125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-5303497103340827362012-09-06T06:55:00.000-07:002012-09-06T06:55:28.080-07:00My Z Magazine article on the Loretta Capeheart caseCheck out my new article on the Loretta Capeheart case, just published in Z Magazine:<br />http://www.zcommunications.org/zmagSteve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-38450523003693358162009-01-08T12:38:00.000-08:002009-01-08T12:41:55.313-08:00<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Here's an op-ed I co-authored about the coming digital TV switchover. It is shaping up to be a real disaster. Thankfully, people seem to be waking up to this fact:</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">America's DTV Transition Beset with Problems</span></span><br /><br />By Steve Macek and Mitchell Szczepanczyk<br /><br />On February 17, 2009, all full-power analog television broadcasts in the<br />United States will cease and existing TV stations will begin<br />broadcasting exclusively in a digital format. The switch to digital<br />television (DTV) will free up frequencies for emergency uses and allow<br />broadcasters to provide more programming for their viewers through<br />"multicasting."<br /><br />As a practical matter, people will need to subscribe to a cable or<br />satellite television service, use a digital-ready TV set, or hook up a<br />digital converter box to an analog TV set, in order to continue watching<br />broadcast television.<br /><br />Unfortunately, the number of people who stand to lose their access to TV<br />programming in the coming DTV transition is considerable. Roughly 10 to<br />15 percent of all TV households (about 30 to 40 million people) still<br />rely on over-the-air television, most of whom are senior citizens, poor,<br />or non-English speakers. In a city like Chicago, with high poverty rates<br />and a large immigrant population, some 20 percent of residents still use<br />antenna-only TV and an estimated 230,000 households are completely<br />unready for the conversion. <br /><br />The federal government has launched a coupon program that allows each<br />household to claim up to two $40 coupons to help offset the cost of<br />digital converter boxes for those that can't afford them otherwise. But<br />the coupons expire 90 days after issuance, and half of the more than 25<br />million people who have requested them have seen their coupons expire.<br /><br />What's more, surveys show more than three-quarters of those who are<br />interested in getting converter boxes are not aware of the coupon<br />program.<br /><br />Preliminary testing of digital-only TV broadcasting in the US has been<br />all but non-existent. The sole switchover test, enacted in September in<br />Wilmington, NC, amounts to a false positive, since 92 percent of the<br />viewers impacted by the test already subscribe to cable. Across the<br />country, there have been sporadic tests -- perhaps a minute or a few<br />minutes at a time at various times and in various locales, but nothing<br />systematic.<br /><br />Outreach about the DTV conversion has been haphazard at best. For the<br />most part, the FCC is counting on public service announcements (PSAs)<br />voluntarily aired by broadcasters to inform viewers about the switch.<br /><br />But only 13 percent of PSAs air during the most-watched hours of<br />primetime, and PSAs make up only one half of 1 percent of all TV<br />airtime.<br /><br />In recent months, the FCC has partnered with senior centers and<br />community groups to stage a series of "town hall" meetings about the DTV<br />transition in an effort to educate some of the most vulnerable<br />populations. But scheduling of these town hall gatherings has been ad<br />hoc and in many cities the meetings have been poorly attended.<br /><br />The distribution of set-top converter boxes has also been fraught with<br />serious problems. Research has shown that the sort of stores that carry<br />converter boxes are typically located far from the low-income<br />neighborhoods which need them most. And many retailers have been caught<br />flat-footed -- not knowing about the transition and sometimes providing<br />incorrect information about the conversion or the coupon program.<br /><br />Amid widespread confusion about the DTV conversion, there has been no<br />shortage of unscrupulous retailers taking advantage. Both fly-by-night<br />scam businesses and major satellite and cable TV providers have been<br />pushing unwitting TV viewers to buy equipment they don't need at<br />inflated prices. Worse still, earlier this year, the FCC fined several<br />large big box retailers a combined $3.9 million for failing to correctly<br />label analog-only TV sets that will be rendered useless come February<br />17.<br /><br />Just last week, government officials overseeing the transition told<br />Congress they may need an extra $330 million to keep up with the demand<br />for converter box coupons. They also admitted that there might not be<br />enough converter boxes available to fill anticipated needs -- and that<br />the shortfall could be as high as 2.5 million boxes.<br /><br />The saddest thing about this entire situation is that America's<br />transition to DTV could've been handled much differently. The UK is<br />currently in the midst of its own switch to digital television. But<br />unlike here in the U.S., the British conversion is being rolled out<br />gradually over the course of four years, converting region-by-region,<br />practically neighborhood by neighborhood. What's more, the money the UK<br />has spent on outreach and infrastructure, per capita, puts American<br />efforts to shame. The British DTV conversion has had problems of its<br />own, but the problems have been far smaller in scale and easier to<br />address. Americans who watch TV and the regulators who shape our<br />communications policies would be wise to take notice.<br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Macek is an associate professor of speech communication at North Central<br />College and Szczepanczyk is an organizer with Chicago Media Action and a<br />frequent contributor to assorted Chicago-area independent media efforts<br />in print, web, radio and television.<br />------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Copyright (C) 2008 by the American Forum. 1/09Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-12414767007267537902008-10-04T16:05:00.000-07:002008-10-04T16:17:51.936-07:00Jonathan Rabin in the London Review of Books this week published the best darn thing I've ever read about Sarah Palin and her very dubious, very swift rise to power in the Republican Party. Among other things it includes an account of Palin's reign of terror as mayor of Wasilla and an explanation of how skyrocketing oil prices swelled the Alaska government's tax coffers, thus allowing her buy popularity by sending $2000 checks to every state citizen. Below is a nice snippet that nails perfectly her (very annoying yet populist) rhetorical style:<br /><blockquote>What is most striking about her is that she seems perfectly untroubled by either curiosity or the usual processes of thought. When answering questions, both Obama and Joe Biden have an unfortunate tendency to think on their feet and thereby tie themselves in knots: Palin never thinks. Instead, she relies on a limited stock of facts, bright generalities and pokerwork maxims, all as familiar and well-worn as old pennies. Given any question, she reaches into her bag for the readymade sentence that sounds most nearly proximate to an answer, and, rather than speaking it, recites it, in the upsy-downsy voice of a middle-schooler pronouncing the letters of a word in a spelling bee. She then fixes her lips in a terminal smile.</blockquote><br />For the whole article go here:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n19/raba01_.html">http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n19/raba01_.html</a>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-64748139040907760062008-08-13T08:13:00.000-07:002008-08-13T08:14:32.981-07:00<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Human Rights Crackdown in China<br /><br /></span></span>Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontières<br /><!--NOVELL_REWRITER_OFF--><a class="weblink" href="http://www.rsf.org/" target="browserView">www.rsf.org</a><!--NOVELL_REWRITER_ON--><br /><br />13 August 2008<br /><br />2008 BEIJING GAMES<br />Crackdown continues for Chinese human rights<br />activists, with no Olympic truce during games<br /><br />The start of the Olympic Games has done nothing<br />to help Chinese human rights activists, who<br />continue to be arrested, watched or threatened.<br />At the same time, incidents involving foreign<br />journalists, including an attack today on a<br />British TV reporter working for ITN, shows that<br />the security services are still preventing the<br />foreign press from working freely.<br /><br />To illustrate this, Reporters Without Borders<br />today offers the comments of a foreign reporter<br />about surveillance and harassment by the Chinese<br />police.<br /><br />"In view of the many incidents, we call on the<br />International Olympic Committee to intercede on<br />behalf of the Chinese citizens who are in danger<br />because of the position they have taken during<br />the Olympic Games," Reporters Without Borders<br />said.<br /><br />"It is the duty of the Olympic movement in its<br />entirety to ensure respect for the spirit of the<br />Olympic truce," the organisation added. "Since<br />the origins of the Olympics, tradition has<br />required that peace should prevail during the<br />games."<br /><br />The IOC website has this to say about the Olympic<br />truce in ancient Greece: "During the truce<br />period, the athletes, artists and their families,<br />as well as ordinary pilgrims, could travel in<br />total safety to participate in or attend the<br />Olympic Games and return afterwards to their<br />respective countries. (...) The International<br />Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to revive the<br />ancient concept of the Olympic Truce with the<br />view (...) to encourage searching for peaceful<br />and diplomatic solutions to the conflicts around<br />the world."<br /><br />John Ray of the British television news service<br />ITN was today covering a protest by several<br />foreign activists who unfurled a pro-Tibet banner<br />near Beijing's main Olympic zone, when he was<br />arrested by police, dragged along the ground and<br />forcibly restrained for about 20 minutes although<br />he identified himself as a journalist. "This was<br />an assault in my mind, I am incredibly angry<br />about this," Ray told Agence France Presse.<br /><br />The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC)<br />says there have been five incidents since 7<br />August. In one of these incidents, police<br />arrested two Associated Press reporters in the<br />northwestern province of Xinjiang and erased the<br />photos they had taken. One of them was arrested<br />while watching the opening ceremony on TV. Two<br />Scandinavian journalists were prevented from<br />interviewing peasants in Hebei province about the<br />impact of the games on their activities.<br /><br />A European journalist who has been working in<br />Beijing for several years has given Reporters<br />Without Borders a gripping description of what it<br />is like for her and her colleagues in Beijing,<br />and the risks run by Chinese who dare to speak to<br />the foreign press.<br /><br />"They don't stop following me, filming me and<br />photographing me," she said. "I think twice<br />before interviewing Chinese about sensitive<br />issues for fear that they could be arrested (...)<br />Last week several Chinese were arrested after<br />giving me interviews. Firstly, people living in<br />the Qianmen district that is in the process of<br />being renovated. They included a woman in charge<br />of an association of evicted residents who sued<br />the government for not paying them enough<br />compensation. The trial began in July but was<br />postponed because of the Olympics. I interviewed<br />her, as other journalists did. Since then she has<br />been detained.<br /><br />"The same thing happened with the pastor of an<br />unrecognised church. Finally, a British woman of<br />Tibetan origin was arrested and expelled after<br />giving me an interview. Under these<br />circumstances, we are all forced to censor<br />ourselves and to refuse to interview certain<br />Chinese for fear of their being immediately<br />arrested. We are all in this situation of<br />intimidation, which makes it very hard for us to<br />work in China, despite the overall improvements.<br /><br />"What's more, the official media have not stopped<br />attacking us since last March's events in Tibet.<br />In addition to the death threats received by<br />dozens of foreign journalists, the Chinese media<br />try to undermine our credibility. And all of this<br />gained pace in the run-up to the games."<br /><br />She is right about Chinese being arrested for<br />talking to the foreign media. Zhang Wei, a former<br />resident of the Beijing district of Qianmen, was<br />arrested on 9 August after filing a request for<br />permission to protest about her family's eviction<br />two years ago to make way for Olympic<br />construction. The Associated Press quotes her son<br />as saying she is to be held for a month for<br />"disrupting the social order." The Public<br />Security Bureau said it was looking at her case<br />and had no other comment to make.<br /><br />Other Chinese are being hounded by the<br />authorities, who fear they could protest during<br />the games. There has been no news since 7 August<br />of Zeng Jinyan, the wife of imprisoned activist<br />Hu Jia, and their seven-month-old daughter. Her<br />mother in law said to several Chinese-language<br />news outlets say she may has been forced her to<br />leave the capital. She had been under permanent<br />police surveillance for several years in the<br />"Freedom" residential area where she lives.<br /><br />Some Beijing intellectuals such as Liu Xiaobo and<br />Yu Jie have not been detained, but are under<br />police surveillance. Wan Yanhai, the head of an<br />NGO that cares for AIDS sufferers, chose to leave<br />Beijing during the games to avoid being harassed<br />by the police.<br /><br />Hua Huiqi, the head of an unrecognised protestant<br />church, was arrested in Beijing on 9 August while<br />on his way to a church service that was attended<br />by US President George W. Bush. His brother -<br />arrested at the same time but freed a few hours<br />later - says he has had no news of Hua since<br />then. The police deny ever arresting Hua and<br />claim they had no role in his disappearance.<br />Human Rights in China meanwhile says it got a<br />short letter in which Hua apparently recounts his<br />arrest and subsequent escape.<br /><br />Ji Sizun, a human rights activist form Fujian<br />province, was arrested on 11 August for filing a<br />request several days earlier for permission to<br />demonstrate in one for the areas designated by<br />the Beijing authorities for protests. Human<br />Rights Watch says Ji wanted to organise a rally<br />to protest against corruption and to call for<br />more citizen participation in government<br />decisions.<br /><br />According to HRW, several other Chinese have been<br />arrested or threatened for filing demonstration<br />requests. They include relatives of children<br />killed in the collapse of "tofu" (shoddily-built)<br />schools in the May earthquake in Sichuan. The<br />Washington Post reports that families were<br />prevent from boarding flights in the Sichuan<br />capital of Chengdu.<br /><br />Several members of the outlawed China Democracy<br />Party were arrested in the days preceding the<br />games opening ceremony. According to Chinese<br />Human Rights Defenders, Xie Changfa of Hunan<br />province was arrested on 2 August, while Wang<br />Rongqing, 65, of Zhejiang province was arrested<br />on 31 July. They have been charged with inciting<br />subversion of state authority.Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-47168480509976183712008-08-08T06:26:00.001-07:002008-08-08T06:26:37.780-07:00<div><span style="font-size:+2;"><b>International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC)</b></span></div> <div><span style="font-size:+2;"><b>Emergency Press Release</b></span></div> <div><span style="font-size:+1;"><b>(August 5th, 2008</b></span>)</div> <div><b><br /></b></div> <div>The ILC -- responding to the appeal for solidarity launched by the Korean Trade Union Confederation (KCTU) -- calls on all trade unionists, all working class activists, all the organisations, and all men and women committed to democracy and freedom around the world to respond to this emergency call.</div> <div><br /></div> <div>In its press release the KCTU wrote:</div> <div><br /></div> <div>* * * * *<br /></div> <div><i>"In the midst of mass candlelight protests calling for renegotiations of the April 18th Protocol on importation of US beef, KCTU decided to go into general strike on July 2 to reflect food safety concerns. KCTU general strike on July 2nd was aimed at renegotiation of April 18 protocol on US beef import, stopping privatization and marketization of public services, opposition to the plan of building Korea Grand Canal, and taking appropriate measures to solve the soaring consumer prices.</i></div> <div><br /></div> <div><i>"The Korean Metal Workers' Union (KMWU) played a leading role in the general strike. The Ministry of Justice and the prosecutor concluded that KMWU's strike on July 2nd was illegal</i>.</div> <div><br /></div> <div><i>"The prosecutor filed for arrest warrants against and has pursued the arrest of the leadership of KCTU, KMWU and Hyundai Motor Branch on the grounds of 'obstruction of business’ provision in section 314 of the Penal Code.</i>'</div> <div><br /></div> <div><i>"We are calling for sending protest letters to the President Lee Myung-bak</i><br /></div> <div><i>By fax: President Lee Myung-bak +82-2-770-4735(Fax)</i></div> <div><br /></div> <div><i>Or internet:</i> <a href="mailto:president@cwd.go.kr"><i>president@cwd.go.kr</i></a></div> <div><br /></div> <div><i>Copies should be sent to the Police authorities (Mr. Eo Cheong-soo </i> <a href="mailto:cnpa100@police.go.kr"><i>cnpa100@police.go.kr</i></a><i>)</i></div> <div><i><br /></i></div> <div><i>List of detaineees or with arrest warrants</i><br /></div> <div><i> 1. KCTU</i><br /></div> <div><i>Mr. Lee Suk-haeng, President, KCTU</i></div> <div><i>Mr. Lee Yong-shik, General Secretary, KCTU</i></div> <div><i>Mr. Jung Gab-deuk, President, KMWU</i></div> <div><i>Mr. Nam Taek-gyu, First Vice-president, KMWU</i></div> <div><i>Mr. Yoon Hae-mo, President, Hyundai Motor Branch</i></div> <div><i>Mr. Kim Tae-gon, First Vice-president, Hyundai Motor Branch</i></div> <div><i>Mr. Kim Jong-il, Vice-president, Hyundai Motor Branch</i></div> <div><i>Mr. Jung Chang-bong, Vice-president, Hyundai Motor Branch</i></div> <div><i>Mr. Joo In-koo, Vice-president, Hyundai Motor Branch</i></div> <div><i>Mr. Jo Chang-min, Secretary,Hyundai Motor Branch</i></div> <div><i>Ms. Jin Yeong-ok, First Vice-president, KCTU</i><br /></div> <div> <i>2. Activists</i></div> <div><br /></div> <div><i>Bak Won-suk, Joint Director of the Field Office of the Coalition</i></div> <div><i>Han Yong-jin, Joint Director of the Field Office of the Coalition</i></div> <div><i>Kim Dong-kyu, Director of the Organizational Team</i></div> <div><i>Kim Kwang-il, Director of the March Team, All Together Steer Committee member</i></div> <div><i>Baek Eun-jong, Vice-Representative, Anti-Lee Myung-bak Internet Café</i></div> <div><i>Baek Seong-gyun, Representative, MichinCow.net</i></div> <div><i>Kwon Hae-jin, Director of Education Movement Headquarters of the Young Korean Academy</i><br /></div> <div><i>3. Detained</i></div> <div><br /></div> <div><i>Ahn Jin-geol,</i></div> <div><i>Yoon Hui-suk,</i></div> <div><i>Hwang Sun-won,</i><br /></div> <div>* * * * *</div> <div><br /></div> <div>The ILC calls upon the international labour movement to respond immediately to this appeal:</div> <div><br /></div> <div>The KCTU and the Metal Workers Union (KMWU) have done nothing other than to carry our their mandate as trade union organisations within the framework and in application of ILO conventions 87 and 98 providing for the right to organise, the right to represent workers and the right to strike.</div> <div><br /></div> <div>The ILC demands the immediate release of all those detained, the immediate lifting of all charges and the immediate withdrawal of all the arrest warrants against the trade unionists concerned.</div> <div><br /></div> <div> *<b> Respect the right to strike!</b></div> <div><br /></div> <div><b>* Respect the right to organise !</b></div> <div><br /></div> <div><b>* Respect ILO conventions 87 and 98!</b></div> <div><br /></div> <div><b>* Free all the trade unionists detained !</b></div> <div><br /></div> <div><b>* Lift all charges !</b></div> <div><br /></div> <div><b>* Withdraw all arrest warrants !</b></div> <div align="center"><br /></div> <div> signed/</div> <div><b><br /></b></div> <div><b>Daniel Gluckstein</b>,<br /></div> <div>Coordinator,</div> <div>International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples</div> <div>Paris, France</div> <div>Aug. 5, 2008</div>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-88796664722831416972008-08-06T21:07:00.000-07:002008-08-06T21:08:13.713-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Cost of War...<br /><br /></span><br /></span><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Wnq6cD5jk1Q&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Wnq6cD5jk1Q&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-70341838940462653392008-08-05T11:30:00.000-07:002008-08-05T11:38:33.474-07:00<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">TAKE ACTION AGAINST YET ANOTHER ATTACK ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM</span></span><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">As anyone who reads this blog knows, since 9/11, the right has ramped up its attack on academics<o:p></o:p> who dare to dissent from the U.S. occupation of Iraq and its policy in<o:p></o:p> the Middle East more generally. Neo-McCarthyite groups like the American<o:p></o:p> Council of Trustees and Alumni, Students for Academic Freedom and the<o:p></o:p> David Project have published lists of “disloyal” faculty and scurrilous<o:p></o:p> reports on allegedly "anti-American" courses dealing with U.S.<o:p></o:p> imperialism, Islam and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Respected<o:p></o:p> scholars who study and write about such subjects —such as Norman<o:p></o:p> Finkelstein-- have been denied tenure solely on the basis of their politics. <o:p></o:p> In similar instances, applications for tenure have been seriously threatened <o:p></o:p> (Nadia Abu El-Haj: Joseph Massad) and books and their publishers have been<o:p></o:p> targeted for censorship (i.e. Joel Kovel’s book “Overcoming Zionism” and <o:p></o:p>University of Michigan Press). <span style=""> </span>Now, the assault on academic freedom has effected <o:p></o:p> yet another critical scholar: Terri Ginsberg, a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from NYU<o:p></o:p> and an authority on Israeli and Palestinian film.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">Last fall, Terri was hired to a one year, non-tenure track position in <o:p></o:p>Film Studies at North Carolina State University (with the possibility of<o:p></o:p> renewal). As part of her teaching responsibilities, she offered advanced courses<o:p></o:p> on film and media<span style=""> </span>treatment of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and on the political<o:p></o:p> aesthetics of Holocaust film (the subject of her recent book) ; she was also <o:p></o:p> charged with helping to program a Middle Eastern film series.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">Unfortunately, as Terri detailed in a grievance she filed with the NCSU Faculty<o:p></o:p> in March 2008,<span style=""> </span>the director of the film studies program and the director <o:p></o:p>of the Middle East studies program at NCSU made a number of administrative <o:p></o:p>decisions in the course of the past year that flagrantly violated Terri’s academic freedom. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">To begin with, they limited her involvement in the film series which she had been hired <o:p></o:p>to curate, and criticized the introduction she gave at a screening of the <o:p></o:p>Palestinian film “Ticket to Jerusalem” as biased and overly political. <o:p></o:p>Moreover, the director of the film studies program refused to purchase many of <o:p></o:p>the materials Terri had requested for her Palestine/Israel film and media course<o:p></o:p> and submitted her evaluation of Terri’s teaching prematurely. All of this culminate<o:p></o:p> in her contract not being renewed for the upcoming academic year.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">The grievance Terri filed with the NCSU Faculty alleged violations of her First Amendment<o:p></o:p> and equal opportunity<span style=""> </span>rights under the University Code. Despite a recommendation <o:p></o:p>from the NCSU Faculty Chair that her case be given a full hearing, NCSU Chancellor James L. Oblinger <o:p></o:p>summarily dismissed her petition on the grounds that it was filed “too late”<o:p></o:p> and that Terri was no longer a university employee. To make matters worse, <o:p></o:p>the AAUP—who had been helping Terri with her case— informed her in the wake of <o:p></o:p>Oblinger’s decision that they would no longer provide her with assistance. (For more information <o:p></o:p>about the facts of Terri’s case, read the following article:<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u><span style="">http://media.www.technicianonline.com/media/storage/paper848/news</span></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u><span style="">/2008/07/17/News/Professor.Claims.Unprotected.Speech-3391733.shtml</span></u></span><span style="">)<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">In response to this outrage, people from around the world have been<o:p></o:p>inundating NCSU with letters demanding that the Chancellor and the Board<o:p></o:p> of Trustees allow Terri’s grievance to go forward. An online petition<o:p></o:p> has been started that requests that NCSU consider Terri’s case and asks<o:p></o:p> the AAUP to give her the support she deserves.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Please take a few minutes to help support Terri in this fight. First, add your name to the petition <o:p></o:p><br />of support drafted by Academics for Justice (AcademicsForJustice.org):<o:p></o:p><br /><u><span style="">http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Protect-Academic-Freedom</span></u></span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">Second, send e-mails and make phone calls to D.<o:p></o:p> McQueen Campbell, chair of the Board of Trustees, and Larry Nielsen, its<o:p></o:p> convener, urging that Terri’s case be heard:<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">D. McQueen Campbell, Chair<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">NCSU Board of Trustees<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">tele: 919-515-2195<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">fax:<span style=""> </span>919-831-3545<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u><span style="">trustees@ncsu.edu</span></u></span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style=""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">Dr. Larry A. Nielsen, NCSU Provost &amp;<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">Executive Vice Chancellor<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><u><span style="">larry_nielsen@ncsu.edu</span></u></span><span style=""><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">tele: 919-515-2195<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="">fax:<span style=""> </span>919-515-5921<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; line-height: normal;"><span style=""><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-88190071175634992802008-08-01T12:54:00.000-07:002008-08-02T10:22:55.532-07:00<div class="extra_media clearfix"><div id="s25504841985" class="sharefeed_item clearfix"><div class="share_media clearfix external share_ext_misc sharefeed_item"><div class="ext_media clearfix no_extra"><div class="textual"><div class="metadata"><div class="title"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="q">COINTELPRO all over again!<br /></span></span><span class="q"><br />For the past month or so, I have been researching the late-60s, early-70s underground press scene in Chicago, interviewing staff members of THE CHICAGO SEED and other movement publications, and reading through back issues of the 100s of "Movement"/hippie papers published in the Chicago area in that era. A huge theme that has emerged from this research has been the degree to which the local police and the FBI spied on, harassed and sought to destroy these publications. For instance, members of the Chicago PD's "Red Squad" routinely visited the office of the SEED to "talk" with/interrogate staff. The paper's editor, Abe Peck, was slapped with obscenity charges for an issue featuring a surreal sexual illustration (although, as often happened, the case was ultimately dismissed). Street vendors of the paper were regularly hassled and sometimes arrested. Store and news stand owners were pressured by police to stop selling the publication. Right-wing vigilantes shot out the windows of the paper's office with impunity (and the possible collusion of the cops). And the movements of the staff members were followed with great interest by all levels of law enforcement. </span><span class="q">The FBI and local police files on the writers, editors, artists and hangers-on associated with just the CHICAGO SEED -- a regional publication with a maximum circulation of 30-40,000 at its peak-- would fill a row of filing cabinets. The famous Church Committee hearings in the U.S. Senate (1975-1976) and a consent decree signed by the city of Chicago in response to a lawsuit brought by the Alliance to End Repression (1981) eventually disclosed that the targeting of the SEED and other underground papers was in fact part of a concerted, coordinated and thoroughly unconstitutional police/FBI/CIA campaign to crush the New Left ( the FBI portion of which was called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO">COINTELPRO</a>).</span><br /><span class="q"><br />Now, it looks like the bad old days of Kafka-esque political repression are back (not that they were ever that far behind us, mind you). Turns out MD police have been spying on anti-war and anti-death penalty organizers and then putting their names on official "terrorist" watchlists. I think I'm going to be sick:</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="q"><br /></span></span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/share_redirect.php?h=8dcba7806711e5aec4bf02abdfb79df2&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baltimoresun.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fbal-te.md.spy18jul18%2C0%2C3787307.story&amp;sid=25504841985" title="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.spy18jul18,0,3787307.story" target="_blank" onclick="ft('4:1:17:0:0::::1217620457:64600854:1::::0:3203259::0:mf,vs', '1217627659:9ada73e5be97f7f454ab502f11827204', 'clk', 'nf');">Spying uncovered -- baltimoresun.com</a></div><div class="url">Source: www.baltimoresun.com</div><div class="summary">Undercover Maryland State Police officers repeatedly spied on peace activists and anti-death penalty groups in recent years and entered the names of some in a law-enforcement database of people thought ...</div></div><div class="owner_comment"><span class="q"><br /><br /></span></div></div></div></div></div></div>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-32107035246706240022008-07-28T12:37:00.000-07:002008-07-28T12:55:50.253-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Reading Marx's Capital</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">with David Harvey</span><br /><br />Geographer and urban critic David Harvey's work on Marxist economic theory-- especially his magnum opus, "The Limits to Capital," and his more recent "A Brief History of Neoliberalism" -- made a convert out of me. Now, he's made available a series of videos of his lectures on Capital Vol. 1. Brilliant stuff. Check out this lecture on the commodity:<br /><br /><embed id="VideoPlayback" style="width: 400px; height: 326px;" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-47456667828483188&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><br /><br />For the entire series of lectures, look <a href="http://davidharvey.org/">here</a>.Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-55497007158063506482008-07-28T09:29:00.000-07:002008-07-28T09:39:36.504-07:00<strong>Mass Murder Has Been Conducted in Our Name...<br /></strong><br />This piece by Peter Phillips-- editor of the annual Project Censored list of top 25 most censored news stories-- really hits the nail on the head. Judged by any reasonable standard, U.S. forces in Iraq are guilty of serious war crimes and the leaders who gave the orders-- Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, the Pentagon brass, the whole damn lot of them-- should be brought to justice.<br /><br />U.S. Perpetuates Mass Killings In Iraq<br />By Peter Phillips<br /><br />The United States is directly responsible for<br />over one million Iraqi deaths since the invasion<br />five and half years ago. In a January 2008<br />report, a British polling group Opinion Research<br />Business (ORB) reports that, "survey work<br />confirms our earlier estimate that over<br />1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result<br />of the conflict which started in 2003.. We now<br />estimate that the death toll between March 2003<br />and August 2007 is likely to have been of the<br />order of 1,033,000. If one takes into account<br />the margin of error associated with survey data<br />of this nature then the estimated range is between 946,000 and 1,120,000".<br /><br />This report comes on the heels of two earlier<br />studies conducted by Johns Hopkins University<br />published in the Lancet medical journal that<br />confirmed the continuing numbers of mass deaths<br />in Iraq. A study done by Dr. Les Roberts from<br />January 1, 2002 to March 18 2003 put the<br />civilian deaths at that time at over 100,000. A<br />second study published in the Lancet in October<br />2006 documented over 650,000 civilian deaths in<br />Iraq since the start of the US invasion. The<br />2006 study confirms that US aerial bombing in<br />civilian neighborhoods caused over a third of<br />these deaths and that over half the deaths are<br />directly attributable to US forces.<br /><br /> The now estimated 1.2 million dead,<br />as of July 2008, includes children, parents,<br />grandparents, great-grandparents, cab drivers,<br />clerics, schoolteachers, factory workers,<br />policemen, poets, healthcare workers, day care<br />providers, construction workers, babysitters,<br />musicians, bakers, restaurant workers and many<br />more. All manner of ordinary people in Iraq<br />have died because the United States decided to<br />invade their country. These are deaths in<br />excess of the normal civilian death rate under the prior government.<br /><br />The magnitude of these deaths is undeniable. The<br />continuing occupation by US forces guarantees a<br />mass death rate in excess of 10,000 people per<br />month with half that number dying at the hands<br />of US forces- a carnage so severe and so<br />concentrated at to equate it with the most<br />heinous mass killings in world history. This act has not gone unnoticed.<br /><br />Recently, Dennis Kucinich introduced a single<br />impeachment article against George W. Bush for<br />lying to Congress and the American people about<br />the reasons for invading Iraq. On July 15 The<br />House forwarded the resolution to the Judiciary<br />Committee with a 238 to 180 vote. That Bush<br />lied about weapons of mass destruction and<br />Iraq's threat to the US is now beyond doubt.<br />Former US federal prosecutor Elizabeth De La<br />Vega documents the lies most thoroughly in her<br />book U.S. Vs Bush, and numerous other<br />researchers have verified Bush's untrue statements.<br /><br />The American people are faced with a serious<br />moral dilemma. Murder and war crimes have been<br />conducted in our name. We have allowed the<br />war/occupation to continue in Iraq and offered<br />ourselves little choice within the top two<br />presidential candidates for immediate cessation<br />of the mass killings. McCain would undoubtedly<br />accept the deaths of another million Iraqi<br />civilians in order to save face for America, and<br />Obama's 18-month timetable for withdrawal would<br />likely result in another 250,000 civilian deaths or more.<br /><br />We owe our children and ourselves a future<br />without the shame of mass murder on our<br />collective conscience. The only resolution of<br />this dilemma is the immediate withdrawal of all<br />US troops in Iraq and the prosecution and<br />imprisonment of those responsible. Anything less<br />creates a permanent original sin on the soul of<br />the nation for that we will forever suffer.<br /><br />Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at<br />Sonoma State University and director of Project<br />Censored a media research group. He is the<br />co-editor with Dennnis Loo of the book Impeach<br />the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney.Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-17417992522314327772008-07-26T13:04:00.000-07:002008-07-26T13:25:02.496-07:00<strong>Keeping the World at Bay...</strong> <br /><br />As anyone who has been keeping count knows, since 9/11, the Bush administration has barred dozens of prominent foreign nationals from entering the country on the specious grounds that they had some sort of tie to a vaguely defined "terrorism." The case of Tariq Ramadan-- an eminent European Muslim scholar who was prevented from entering the US to take a post at Notre Dame-- is perhaps the most famous. But there have been others: Adam Habib, a South African scholar and outspoken critic of the war in Iraq; Waskar Ari, a Bolivian expert on Bolivian indigeonous religious beliefs and activism; several Cuban scholars and on and on. Now it appears that peaceful, nonviolent, secular human rights activists who just happen to oppose U.S. imperialism's various client regimes are also being barred. Will it never end?<br /><br /><strong>Homeland insecurity</strong><br />Peter Tatchell guardian.co.uk, Wednesday July 2 2008<br /><br />In another bizarre twist to Washington's often illegal, irrational "war on terror", peaceful, lawful human rights campaigners are now apparently being refused entry to the US – without any right of appeal.<br /><br />Noordin Mengal, a British citizen and Baluch human rights defender, was detained and deported by US immigration when he arrived at Newark Liberty airport from Dubai last week. Read more <strong><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/02/humanrights.usa">here</a></strong>.Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-6927364901638248912008-05-15T19:24:00.000-07:002008-05-15T19:49:40.302-07:00<span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Pentagon Used Ex-Military Experts as Megaphones for Propaganda</span><span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span><br /><br />A few weeks ago the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html">reported</a> what those of us in the anti-war movement have long suspected: that many of those ubiquitous former generals who are forever appearing on TV news shows to talk about the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan have been carefully coached and cultivated by the Pentagon to echo the administrations' talking points and misinformation. This is of course a violation of longstanding laws prohibiting the military -- or any branch of government-- from engaging in domestic propaganda. Add the "military analyst program" to the large and growing dossier of treasonous offenses for which Bush, Cheney and co. may some day stand trial. <br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?tabType3=none&amp;tabUrl3=undefined&amp;tabTitle3=undefined&amp;tabType2=guide&amp;tabUrl2=http%3A%2F%2Ffreepressvideo%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash&amp;tabTitle2=Episodes&amp;tabType1=details&amp;tabUrl1=undefined&amp;tabTitle1=About&amp;enablejs=true&amp;feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Ffreepressvideo%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash&amp;file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F909110%3Freferrer%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efreepress%2Enet%2Fnode%2F39877source%3D3&amp;brandlink=http%3A%2F%2Ffreepressvideo%2Eblip%2Etv%2F&amp;brandname=Free%20Press%20TV&amp;smokeduration=0&amp;showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer%2Eswf" allowfullscreen="true" id="showplayer" height="255" width="400"><param name="movie" value="http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?tabType3=none&amp;tabUrl3=undefined&amp;tabTitle3=undefined&amp;tabType2=guide&amp;tabUrl2=http%3A%2F%2Ffreepressvideo%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash&amp;tabTitle2=Episodes&amp;tabType1=details&amp;tabUrl1=undefined&amp;tabTitle1=About&amp;enablejs=true&amp;feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Ffreepressvideo%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash&amp;file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F909110%3Freferrer%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efreepress%2Enet%2Fnode%2F39877source%3D3&amp;brandlink=http%3A%2F%2Ffreepressvideo%2Eblip%2Etv%2F&amp;brandname=Free%20Press%20TV&amp;smokeduration=0&amp;showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer%2Eswf"><param name="quality" value="best"><embed src="http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?tabType3=none&amp;tabUrl3=undefined&amp;tabTitle3=undefined&amp;tabType2=guide&amp;tabUrl2=http%3A%2F%2Ffreepressvideo%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash&amp;tabTitle2=Episodes&amp;tabType1=details&amp;tabUrl1=undefined&amp;tabTitle1=About&amp;enablejs=true&amp;feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Ffreepressvideo%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash&amp;file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F909110%3Freferrer%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efreepress%2Enet%2Fnode%2F39877source%3D3&amp;brandlink=http%3A%2F%2Ffreepressvideo%2Eblip%2Etv%2F&amp;brandname=Free%20Press%20TV&amp;smokeduration=0&amp;showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer%2Eswf" quality="best" name="showplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="255" width="400"></embed></object>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-69026232334892146782008-04-07T11:54:00.000-07:002008-04-07T11:55:18.599-07:00I should have blogged about this long ago.<br /><br />A group of former North Central College Broadcasting/Media Students-- many of whom took my first ever "Introduction to New Media" course-- have launched an exciting new site devoted to "music and culture". Check it out <a href="http://www.heavemedia.com/">here</a>.<br /><br />Among other things, the site features reviews, a concert calender, interviews with up and coming bands, MP3s and a clever V-blog of album reviews (see below). Nice work guys!<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XkO1tlmBW2Y&amp;hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XkO1tlmBW2Y&amp;hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425"></embed></object>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-64310688424276411062008-03-28T14:56:00.000-07:002008-03-29T10:44:19.174-07:00<span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="headlineArticle" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder_article_NavWebPart_Article_ctl00___Title__" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-size:130%;" >The $3 Trillion Mistake</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">This is old news but still deserving of comment.<br /></span><br />Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz recently co-authored a book (with Linda Bilmes)</span></span><em></em></span><span class="headlineArticle" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder_article_NavWebPart_Article_ctl00___Title__" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">, </span></span><em><em><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict, </span></em></em><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="headlineArticle" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder_article_NavWebPart_Article_ctl00___Title__" style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">which puts the real cost of the invasion and occupation of Iraq to the U.S. economy at roughly $ 3 trillion. They estimate that the war has cost the rest of the world another $ 3 trillion. And they claim that war will ultimately add another $2 trillion to our already enormous $5 trillion national debt. Who has profited from this expensive debacle? The defense and oil industries, the very industries who largely bankrolled the Bush-Cheney Presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004. Coincidence? Hmmm.<br /><br />Now, I'm usually not a fan of Nobel-Prize winning economists. The Nobel Prize in Economics was created later than the original 5 Nobel Awards (Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Peace) at the urging of and with funding from a group of Swedish bankers. Throughout its history, it has been used to ratify and legitimate what I would call "pro-capitalist," or what some heterodox economists aptly dub "autistic", classical and neoclassical economic dogma. Indeed, a Nobel Prize in Economics is often nothing more than license to perpetuate anti-worker lies and myths under the cover of scholarly respectability. Witness the case of Milton Friedman, who won the prize in 1976 at around the time he was acting as adviser to the bloodthirsty and criminal Pinochet junta in Chile. Usually when I hear "Nobel Laureate in Economics", I prepare myself for an onslaught of reactionary ideology dressed up in the language of "rational game theory" and buttressed by an arsenal of fudged statistics. So, the fact that someone like Stiglitz -- a rather mild-mannered and moderate critic of neoclassical economics-- is taking aim at the Bush administrations' expensive folly in Iraq is noteworthy. And, yes, welcome...Read more below<br /></span></span></span><span class="headlineArticle" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder_article_NavWebPart_Article_ctl00___Title__" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-family:verdana;" ><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /></span>The $3 trillion war in Iraq</span></span><br /><span class="subhead1" id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder_article_NavWebPart_Article_ctl00___SubTitle1__"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Only two winners have emerged from the conflict: oil companies and defence contractors...</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><a href="http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/339461"><br />http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/339461</a></span>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-53908781949519430712008-03-12T15:12:00.000-07:002008-03-29T10:50:00.477-07:00As we approach the 5th anniversary of the illegal, catastrophic and mind-numbingly cruel U.S. invasion of Iraq, it is important to recognize what is really driving American imperialism and militarism: corporate greed, inter-imperialist rivalry and what Eisenhower famously called the military-industrial complex.It's also important to recognize that that U.S. has been an imperialist power almost since its inception and became the world's major imperialist power in the aftermath of WWII (although the USSR certainly was a close second). The American seizure of Iraq was just the latest in a very long line of "intervensions" that have overthrown governments-- often popularly elected governments-- around the globe. This is a point that is that is underscored by this clever little video:<br /><br /><object height="355" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9ynQH63IF0U&amp;hl=en"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9ynQH63IF0U&amp;hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-19350640371078496362008-02-27T10:43:00.001-08:002008-02-27T10:43:58.732-08:00Here's a fine video from media reform group Free Press. Enjoy.<br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WVkSfLky-DE&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WVkSfLky-DE&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-87006360734773107932007-07-31T08:26:00.000-07:002007-07-31T08:37:17.685-07:00<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mpht4sXDhx0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mpht4sXDhx0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br><br /><b>Another expose of FOX NEWS...Of course, criticizing FOX is like shooting fat, disabled ducks in a barrel. But, still, FOX's stupid attack on blogs and bloggers-- who as a group tend to be libertarians, New (or Third Way) Democrats and independent centrists, not socialists or extreme leftists-- is absolutely misinformed. If only DAILY KOS and the other blogs being routinely attacked by O'Reilly were really calling for revolutionary change.</b>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-31911892654387233282007-06-18T13:32:00.000-07:002007-06-18T13:50:19.222-07:00<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">More Bad News: The Demise of </span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Punk Planet<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;">The tiny club of independent, progressive/radical publications based here in Chicago is about to shrink yet again. I just got word that Punk Planet-- a zine that for 13 years combined service to the punk subculture with coverage of news and commentary about feminism, labor, sexual politics, race relations, the environment and a host of other issues--is going to close its doors. Here's a choice snippet from PP founder and editor Dan Sinker's letter to subscribers:<br /><blockquote>As much as it breaks our hearts to write these words, the final issue <br />of Punk Planet is in the post, possibly heading toward you right now. <br />Over the last 80 issues and 13 years, we've covered every aspect of <br />the financially independent, emotionally autonomous, free culture we <br />refer to as "the underground." In that time we've sounded many alarms <br />from our editorial offices: about threats of co-optation, big-media <br />emulation, and unseen corporate sponsorship. We've also done <br />everything in our power to create a support network for independent <br />media, experiment with revenue streams, and correct the distribution <br />issues that have increasingly plagued independent magazines. But now <br />we've come to the impossible decision to stop printing, having <br />sounded all the alarms and reenvisioned all the systems we can. <br />Benefit shows are no longer enough to make up for bad distribution <br />deals, disappearing advertisers, and a decreasing audience of <br />subscribers.<br /><br />As to the latter two points, we could blame the Internet. It makes <br />editorial content—and bands—easy to find, for free. (We're sure our <br />fellow indie labels, those still standing, can attest to the <br />difficulties created in the last few years). We can blame educational <br />and media systems that value magazines focused on consumerism over <br />engaged dissent. And we can blame the popular but mistaken belief <br />that punk died several years ago.<br /><br />But it is also true that great things end, and the best things end <br />far too quickly.<br /><br />As to bad distribution deals, we must acknowledge that the financial <br />hit we took in October of 2005, when our newsstand distributor <br />announced that it was in dire straits, was worse than we originally <br />thought. As the dust began to clear from their January bankruptcy <br />announcement, we began to realize that the magazine was left in <br />significantly worse shape, distribution-wise, than they let on.<br /><br />Add to that the stagnation that the independent record world is <br />suffering under and the effect that has had on our ad sales, not to <br />mention the loss of independent bookstores with a vested interest in <br />selling our publication, and it all adds up to a desperate situation. <br />This has been made far worse by the exhaustion felt from a year and a <br />half of fighting our own distributor. It was a situation that didn't <br />have an exit strategy other then, well, exiting.<br /></blockquote>Sinker goes on to explain that the PP website and book publishing imprint will continue on. Still, the world will be a vastly less interesting place without the excellent print magazine; it could always be counted on for thoughtful columns, eye opening feature articles, interviews with cutting edge bands, artists and activists, and sharp tongued reviews of music, books and media of all kinds. It sure beat the hell out of the corporate rock magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin. I'll miss it...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"></span>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-17539082918510759362007-06-13T13:49:00.000-07:002007-06-13T13:51:36.045-07:00An important announcement from...<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">National Project in Defense of Dissent<br />and Critical Thinking in Academia</span><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Opposition Mounts as University of Colorado President<br />Calls for Ward Churchill to be Dismissed</span><br /></strong><br />FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br />Contact:Reggie Dylan: (626) 319-1730<br />Matthew Abraham: (773) 682-9322<br />Email: <a href="mailto:criticalxthinking@yahoo.com">criticalxthinking@yahoo.com</a><br />Website: <a href="http://www.defendcriticalthinking.org/">www.defendcriticalthinking.org</a> <strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong><br /></strong><strong></strong>In a letter to the Board of Regents, University of Colorado President Hank<br />Brown has called for the dismissal of tenured Ethnic Studies Professor<br />Ward Churchill. His recommendation goes beyond that<br />of the faculty investigative committee that examined<br />charges of research misconduct; and of the faculty<br />Privilege and Tenure (P&T) committee that recently<br />heard Churchill’s appeal. Gov. Bill Ritter of Colorado<br />joined Brown in calling for the firing of Churchill,<br />as his predecessor Bill Owens did two years earlier.<br />The Board of Regents is expected to make a final<br />decision in this case at a public hearing some time in<br />July.<br />A growing number of scholars see CU’s<br />investigation of Churchill’s scholarship as completely<br />illegitimate and a dangerous precedent threatening<br />dissent and critical thinking in the universities.<br />The CU - Boulder chapter of the American Association<br />of University Professors (AAUP) has written that "we<br />believe that the investigation now is widely perceived<br />to be a pretext for firing Churchill when the real<br />reason for dismissal is his politics." The<br />investigation was launched in the wake of controversy<br />provoked by an essay Churchill wrote after 9/11.<br />Churchill noted in response to Brown’s<br />letter that "the University had received no formal or<br />written complaints about my scholarship when it<br />initiated this ‘investigation.’ All of the<br />allegations investigated were either solicited or<br />brought directly by University administrators." He<br />also noted that "The Investigative Committee charged<br />with conducting a ‘fact-finding, nonadversarial’<br />investigation was chaired by law professor Mimi<br />Wesson, who - in February 2005 - had compared me to<br />'charismatic male celebrity wrongdoers' like O.J.<br />Simpson, Michael Jackson and Bill Clinton, and had<br />already come up with the faulty 'traffic stop' analogy<br />the Committee used to justify its conclusions." The<br />committee included no American Indians or experts in<br />American Indian Studies, and scholars that had used<br />Churchill's research in their own work were removed<br />from the committee.<br />The report of the committee hearing<br />Churchill’s appeal found that Churchill proved by a<br />"preponderance of the evidence" that "but for" his<br />exercise of his protected first amendment rights, the<br />subsequent investigation of his scholarship would<br />never have been initiated.<br />In a recent open letter to colleagues<br />around the country Dr. Margaret LeCompte, President of<br />the Boulder AAUP Chapter, wrote: "What has happened at<br />the University of Colorado makes a mockery of both due<br />process and academic freedom protections, AND what<br />faculty believe. It is a cruel violation of the<br />delicate balance between faculty rights and<br />administrative responsibilities… The entire process<br />was a sham---imitating the form, but not the intent,<br />of due process and fair, objective, scholarly<br />investigation."<br />Two faculty groups that have examined the<br />report of the investigative committee claim that the<br />report is seriously flawed. In an unprecedented<br />action, both have now filed formal charges of academic<br />misconduct against the members of the faculty<br />committee. The most recent group to do so, made up of<br />principally Indigenous scholars from around the<br />country and Canada, documented "many instances of<br />fraud, fabrication, plagiarism and/or serious<br />deviation from accepted scholarly practices" which<br />"demonstrate a consistent pattern of deliberate<br />misrepresentation intended to discredit Professor<br />Churchill’s larger body of scholarship." Eric<br />Cheyfitz, Ernest I. White Professor of American<br />Studies and Humane Letters at Cornell University, has<br />found "the Report turns what is a debate about<br />controversial issues of identity and genocide in<br />Indian studies into an indictment of one position in<br />that debate."<br />The implications of this case go beyond<br />the threat to Churchill's reputation and career, as<br />serious as those are. The attack on Churchill is seen<br />by many in academia as part of a much broader attack<br />on academic freedom and critical thinking and dissent.<br />Dr. LeCompte notes, "It is not limited to Colorado. In<br />fact, it is a test case by the US right wing to<br />emasculate faculty rights in US universities."<br />This is illustrated by the recent denial of tenure<br />for DePaul University political scientist Norman<br />Finkelstein. Though he was supported by his<br />department, Finkelstein was denied tenure after an<br />intense campaign spearheaded by Harvard Law School's<br />Alan M. Dershowitz, who called Finkelstein "worse than<br />Churchill." Many DePaul faculty and others were<br />alarmed at Dershowitz’s heavy-handed tactics and saw<br />them as an attempt to punish one side of a<br />controversial debate. Finkelstein said that DePaul’s<br />decision was based on "transparently political<br />grounds" and was an "egregious violation" of academic<br />freedom.<br />Churchill noted in his response to Brown’s<br />letter that "President Brown, his new VP Michael<br />Poliakoff, and Regent Tom Lucero, like Bill Owens, are<br />key players in Lynne Cheney’s American Council of<br />Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). ACTA and similar<br />neoconservative groups have received generous funding<br />[from] Castle Rock (Coors), Scaife, Bradley and Olin<br />foundations to eliminate Ethnic, Gender and Peace<br />Studies Programs and to purge higher education of<br />those who think critically, challenge historical<br />orthodoxy, or otherwise threaten the status quo."<br />Opposition to this impending firing has<br />been increasing nationally, as more and more academics<br />recognize the stakes involved in the Churchill case.<br />An open letter signed by numerous prominent scholars,<br />including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Derrick Bell and<br />Immanuel Wallerstein was published in the New York<br />Review of Books in April. Scores of others have<br />written letters of support, and there was a recent<br />Emergency National Forum in Boulder of academics and<br />supporters. The Society of American Law Teachers has<br />written a letter arguing against a firing.<br />Richard Falk, visiting Distinguished<br />Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara<br />recently wrote: "All of us who value academic freedom<br />should now stand in full solidarity with Ward<br />Churchill. The outcome of his case at the University<br />of Colorado is the best litmus test we have to tell<br />whether the right-wing’s assaults on learning and<br />liberty will stifle campus life in this country. Never<br />in my lifetime have we in America more needed the sort<br />of vigorous debate and creative controversy that Ward<br />Churchill's distinguished career epitomizes. We all<br />stand to lose if his principled defense fails."<br /># # #<br />Signed:<br />Matthew Abraham - Department of English, De Paul<br />University.<br />William Ayers - Distinguished Professor of Education<br />and Senior University Scholar, University of Illinois<br />at Chicago.<br />Derrick A Bell - Visiting Professor of Constitutional<br />Law, New York University School of Law.<br />Timothy Brennan - Departments of English and Cultural<br />Studies &amp; Comparative Literature, University of<br />Minnesota.<br />Renate Bridenthal - Emerita Professor of History,<br />Brooklyn College, The City University of New York.<br />Bob Buzzanco - Department of History, University of<br />Houston.<br />Dana Cloud - Associate Professor of Communication<br />Studies at the University of Texas (Austin).<br />Drucilla Cornell - Professor in the Departments of Law<br />and Political Science at Rutgers University.<br />Sandi E Cooper - Professor of History, College of<br />Staten Island and the Graduate School, The City<br />University of New York.<br />Richard Delgado - University Distinguished Professor<br />of Law and Derrick Bell Fellow, University of<br />Pittsburgh.<br />Richard A Falk - Albert G. Milbank Professor of<br />International Law and Practice at Princeton<br />University; Visiting Distinguished Professor (since<br />2002), Global Studies, University of California, Santa<br />Barbara.<br />Seth Kahn - Assistant Professor of English, West<br />Chester University of PA.<br />Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies,<br />Middle East Institute, Columbia University.<br />Vinay Lal - Department of History, University of<br />California, Los Angeles.<br />Gary Leupp - Professor of History at Tufts University,<br />and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion.<br />Henry Silverman - Professor and Chairperson Emeritus,<br />Department of History, Michigan State University.<br />Immanuel Wallerstein - Senior Research Scholar, Yale<br />University.<br />Tim Wise - Author of "White Like Me: Reflections on<br />Race from a Privileged Son," and "Affirmative Action:<br />Racial Preference in Black and White."Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-35464072901490358232007-06-12T20:13:00.000-07:002007-06-13T07:40:38.790-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Depaul Caves in to Neo-Con Pressure and Denies Norman Finkelstein Tenure</span></span><br /></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" >This past Friday Norman Finkelstein-- a leading critic of the systematic U.S. and Israeli oppression of the Palestinians and a careful analyst of the way the Holocaust has been used by apologists to justify Israeli disregard for international law -- was denied tenure by DePaul University. This despite the fact that he enjoyed excellent teaching evaluations, is a prominent public intellectual with several books to his credit and had the full backing of his department. Yet his tenure bid was blocked first by his dean and then by his president. Why? As president Rev. Dennis H.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"> Holtschneider</span></span><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:85%;" > put it in <a href="http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/pdf/tenuredenial/Finkelstein,Norman06.08.2007.pdf">his letter to Finkelstein</a>:<br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><blockquote>reviewers at all levels, both for and against tenure, commented upon your ad hominem attacks on scholars with whom you disagree... In the opinion of those opposing tenure, your unprofessional personal attacks divert the conversation away from consideration of ideas, and polarize and simplify conversations that deserve layered and subtle consideration. As such, they believe your work not only shifts toward advocacy and away from scholarship, but also fails to meet the most basic standards governing scholarship discourse within the academic community.<br /></blockquote><span style="font-family:verdana;">A little later in the letter Holtschneider says that he cannot "in good faith conclude that you honor your obligations to 'respect and defend the free inquiry of associates,' 'show due respect for the opinions of others,' and 'strive to be objective in their professional judgment of colleagues.'"<br /><br />Having only read one of Finkelstein's older books (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Holocaust Industry</span>) and some of his popular articles, I can't say for certain that this is a total misrepresentation of his work but the stuff of his I have read not only exceeds "basic standards governing scholarship" but is much more politically relevant, more insightful, and better written than most of the dreck cranked out by legions of other, perhaps more polite, professors in history and political science. True, Finkelstein has been engaged in an ongoing feud with the ever obstreperous Allen Dershowitz, Harvard law professor and well known apologist for Israeli militarism. But in this particular spat, it has been Dershowitz who has failed to respect the free inquiry of others and whose behavior has consistently failed to meet the standards of the academic community: instead of attempting to refute Finkelstein's criticisms of his views on Israel, <a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050711/wiener">he actually lobbied Governor of California Arnold Schwartzenegger in an effort to prevent the University of California Press from publishing them</a>. </span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:verdana;">Yet even if the charges </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Holtschneider makes about Finkelstein are true, is that sufficient grounds for silencing a unique and courageous voice who even the president himself admits is "</span><span style="font-family:verdana;">provocative, challenging and intellectually interesting?"</span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:verdana;"> One wonders whether or not any of the more famous conservative/reactionary intellectuals of past few years would be able to pass muster if the DePaul standard were uniformly enforced throughout academia. Former Secretary of Education William Bennett, cultural critic Allan Bloom, historian Paul Johnson -- to name only three such right-of-center authors -- have made entire careers out of spewing hateful polarizing rhetoric and launching vicious personal attacks; hell, Johnson's <span style="font-style: italic;">Intellectuals</span> is nothing but one long, gossip-filled <span style="font-style: italic;">ad hominem</span> assault on every left-wing intellectual from Rousseau to Brecht. How much did Leo Strauss-- advocate of using noble lies to manipulate the allegedly witless masses-- "respect the opinion of others"? And has Pepperdine University's Daniel Pipes-- founder of the neo-McCarthyite outfit <a href="http://www.campus-watch.org/">Campus Watch</a>-- ever once acted to "defend the free inquiry" of left-wing opponents of U.S. foreign policy?<br /><br />The standard </span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:verdana;">Holtschneider invokes in his letter is ultimately so malleable as to be virtually useless in practice. </span></span><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:verdana;">The truth is that people whose views are on the receiving end of even the most rigorously argued, clearly delineated and factually based criticisms will inevitably read them as "personal attacks" (even when they are framed explicitly as "considerations of ideas"); this is doubly true if the people in question happen to be right-wing ideological hotheads like the Neo-Con crowd.<br /><br />But, of course, the real reason Finkelstein got the ax had absolutely nothing to do with the "tone" of his work or his <span style="font-style: italic;">ad hominem</span> attacks on Dershowitz or anyone else; rather, it had to do with the subversive ideas that he advocated. Since 9/11, criticism of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East-- and in particular, criticism of U.S. support of Israel-- has become the third rail of academia in this country. Touch it and your life in higher education may come to a sudden end. That is the clear message implicit in the Finkelstein tenure decision, in the firing of Ward Churchill at Colorado, in the carefully orchestrated public fervor over allegations about anti-Israeli bias at Columbia, and in the countless efforts made by college administrators and reactionary pundits like David Horowitz to punish faculty for speaking out against the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.<br /><br />This is a very dark day for academic freedom. </span><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></span>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-48562987512127279592007-06-06T21:28:00.000-07:002007-06-06T21:29:46.032-07:00<object height="350" width="425"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">We the People..Don't Want No War. </span></span><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0sLPgZPx2eY"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0sLPgZPx2eY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-25033021474368932492007-06-06T20:34:00.000-07:002007-06-06T20:38:36.407-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;">Meen Erhabe/Who's the terrorist?<br /></span>Interesting rap video that raises a vitally important question about Israeli treatment of Palestinians and the double standard involved in the way we in the West discuss "terrorism"...<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br /><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1a4N4L5qu6A"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1a4N4L5qu6A" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-65648397870138048252007-05-16T20:18:00.000-07:002007-05-18T14:07:39.153-07:00<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Burn in Hell, Jerry Falwell, Burn in Hell<br /></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-size:85%;">If there is a Hell, Jerry Falwell's stunted, blackened, hate-filled little soul is at this moment almost certainly smoldering away in its deepest, hottest pit. How could a just God possibly spare a man who was an unapologetic segregationist (until the political winds started to shift), who supported the apartheid regime in South Africa, who gave his blessing to one U.S.-backed imperialist bloodbath after another, who callously applauded as the government slashed funding for the poor and the homeless, who saw the 9/11 attacks as divine retribution for "sins" committed by secular groups like the ACLU and People for the American way, who equated feminism with witchcraft, whose homophobic tirades (at least implicitly) legitimized hatred of and violence towards gays and lesbians, and who rarely missed an opportunity to spew demagogic misinformation about everything from children's TV characters to global warming in the national media? Unfortunately, as an atheist who is skeptical of the whole notion of an "afterlife," I strongly suspect that Falwell in death has evaded any sort of final reckoning for all the lives he destroyed in the course of his mean-spirited sanctimonious career. He now sleeps the blissful, eternal sleep of nonexistence. We, sadly, have to live with the legacy of evil he has left behind. </span><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></span></span>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-33814485571467331772007-04-18T13:10:00.000-07:002007-04-18T13:32:08.562-07:00<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Here's to the State of Missouri...*</span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br />According to Free Exchange on Campus, on April 12, "</span></span></span></span>the Missouri House passed <a href="http://www.house.mo.gov/bills071/biltxt/perf/HB0213P.HTM" target="_blank">HB 213</a>, the ACTA-inspired bill that mandates annual reporting to the coordinating board of higher education on issues of 'intellectual diversity' including protecting the viewpoint that 'the Bible is inerrant.' <a href="http://www.firedupmissouri.com/cunningham_sponsors_wingnut_welfare" target="_blank">Rep. Jane Cunningham</a>, the sponsor of the bill, wants the good folks of Missouri to believe this is based on the views of students because she has an individual case that she misrepresents as a systemic problem."<br /><br />Every academic in the country ought to write a nasty letter to the speaker of the Missouri House and to every major newspaper in the the Show Me state protesting this nonsense. And we should be vigilant about this bill becoming a template for other states around the country. Among other things, the act opens the door to the teaching of so-called "intelligent design" as science and legitimates "monitoring" of the content of university classes. Of course, those of us on the socialist left could perhaps use the mandate for "intellectual diversity" in this legislation to protest the pro-business propaganda that often passes for scholarship and teaching in economics and business departments (where many faculty treat, not the Bible, but the equally loony pronouncements of Milton Friedman as "inerrant").<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">[<span style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="font-size:130%;">*</span> </span>Phil Ochs, at the height of the civil rights struggle in the south, penned a delightfully pointed little ditty called "Here's to the State of Mississippi" skewering that state for clinging to its racist, segregationist policies. The title of this post is an allusion to that song. Below is a choice snippet from Ochs' lyrics: </span></span></span></span></span><br /><pre><span style="font-size:100%;">And here's to the schools of Mississippi<br />Where they're teaching all the children that they don't have to care<br />All the rudiments of hatred are present everywhere<br />And every single classroom is a factory of despair<br />There's nobody learning such a foreign word as fair<br />Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of<br />Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of]</span></pre>Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6191666.post-29507251473725223992007-04-16T19:41:00.000-07:002007-04-16T19:53:54.409-07:00<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">The Death Knell of the Little Magazine? </span></span><br />Bob McChesney sent out an urgent letter earlier today alerting media reform activists and media studies scholars alike to the U.S. Post Office's impending rate hike and what it will do to "little magazines" like In These Times, The Nation, Monthly Review, Z Magazine and, for that matter, right wing publications like The National Review.<br /><br />Here's some of the more important bits:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"> The U.S. Post Office is in the process of implementing a radical reformulation of its rates for magazines, such that smaller periodicals will be hit with a much much larger increase than the largest magazines.<br /><br />Because the Post Office is a monopoly, and because magazines must use it, the postal rates always have been skewed to make it cheaper for smaller publications to get launched and to survive. The whole idea has been to use the postal rates to keep publishing as competitive and wide open as possible. This bedrock principle was put in place by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. They considered it mandatory to create the press system, the Fourth Estate necessary for self-government.<br /><br />It was postal policy that converted the free press clause in the First Amendment from an abstract principle into a living breathing reality for Americans. And it has served that role throughout our history.<br /><br />What the Post Office is now proposing goes directly against 215 years of postal policy. The Post Office is in the process of implementing a radical reformulation of its mailing rates for magazines. Under the plan, smaller periodicals will be hit with a much larger increase than the big magazines, as much as 30 percent. Some of the largest circulation magazines will face hikes of less than 10 percent.<br /><br />The new rates, which go into effect on July 15, were developed with no public involvement or congressional oversight, and the increased costs could damage hundreds, even thousands, of smaller publications, possibly putting many out of business. This includes nearly every political journal in the nation. These are the magazines that often provide the most original journalism and analysis. These are the magazines that provide much of the content on Common Dreams. We desperately need them.<br /><br />What the Post Office is planning to do now, in the dark of night, is implement a rate structure that gives the best prices to the biggest publishers, hence letting them lock in their market position and lessen the threat of any new competition. The new rates could make it almost impossible to launch a new magazine, unless it is spawned by a huge conglomerate.<br /><br />Not surprisingly, the new scheme was drafted by Time Warner, the largest magazine publisher in the nation. All evidence available suggests the bureaucrats responsible have never considered the implications of their draconian reforms for small and independent publishers, or for citizens who depend upon a free press.<br /><br />The corruption and sleaziness of this process is difficult to exaggerate. As one lawyer who works for a large magazine publisher admits, “It takes a publishing company several hundred thousand dollars to even participate in these rate cases. Some large corporations spend millions to influence these rates.” Little guys, and the general public who depend upon these magazines, are not at the table when the deal is being made.<br /><br />The genius of the postal rate structure over the past 215 years was that it did not favor a particular viewpoint; it simply made it easier for smaller magazines to be launched and to survive. That is why the publications opposing the secretive Post Office rate hikes cross the political spectrum. This is not a left-wing issue or a right-wing issue, it is a democracy issue. And it is about having competitive media markets that benefit all Americans. This reform will have disastrous effects for <b><i>all</i> </b>small and mid-sized publications, be they on politics, music, sports or gardening.<br /><br />This process was conducted with such little publicity and pitched only at the dominant players that we only learned about it a few weeks ago and it is very late in the game. But there is something you can do. Please go to <a href="http://www.stoppostalratehikes.com/"> www.stoppostalratehikes.com</a> and sign the letter to the Postal Board protesting the new rate system and demanding a congressional hearing before any radical changes are made. <b>The deadline for comments is April 23</b><br /></span></blockquote>I want to reiterate Bob's call to action here. The disappearance of "little magazines" would be a huge blow to the left because-- in the absence of strong left political parties and militant unions--they are among the few institutions that give the left in the U.S. a national identity. And without them, I'd be forced to read Newsweek, Time, the New Republic, U.S. News and World Report, Foreign Policy and other such pro-capitalist, pro-imperialist, pop-culture-obsessed dreck. Please save me from this mind-numbing fate. Log onto <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.stoppostalratehikes.com/"> www.stoppostalratehikes.com</a> and make your voice heard....Steve Macekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13384707933464929769noreply@blogger.com0